


See How They Run

by ScaryScarecrows



Series: Gaslights [21]
Category: Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)
Genre: Dick is tripping balls on fear gas for most of this, Gen, Nursery Rhymes, Robins doing what Robins do best, maze, saying Fuck Batman and doing something dangerous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-03-18 01:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18975997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScaryScarecrows/pseuds/ScaryScarecrows
Summary: Scarecrow is crouched on top of the hedge, head tilted to the side like a bird’s, the yellow eyes in his mask just reaching Dick.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes elements from the ‘Fear’ arc in Haunted Knight, namely the maze and Scarecrow’s nursery rhymes. I considered having Batman run the maze, as he does there, but, well, ‘three blind mice’...I couldn’t help myself. It was going to be a one-shot, but then it wanted to be a three-parter, so stay tuned.
> 
> Mood music: Scarecrow’s theme, naturally, from Arkham Asylum. This takes place prior to ‘Shatter Like Glass’, so the Robins do not know the Murder Dork’s identities just yet.

It’s pouring rain.

Dick mentally slaps himself for the observation. Of  _ course _ it’s pouring rain, it’s Gotham. That’s the weather here. It’s taken him several years to acclimate, but he managed it in the end, which means there’s no reason to point out the obvious. Even if it’s just to himself.

Bruce is going to be furious, when he finds out what they’ve done. But. It’s just. They  _ had _ them, they did, they had-they still have-the chance to end the reign of terror. And yeah, Bruce said not to engage, but...but he’s not here, and…

And he may be their guardian, and all right, in the privacy of Dick’s own mind he...could be...inching towards being some kind of father, but he’s not Papa. And Papa always told him that you can’t wait for someone else to come and do the right thing. You are the someone else.

Granted, chasing after a pair of serial killers is probably not what Papa had in mind, but…

The point is, they had them. Surprised them, even, and had managed to stay with them.

Right up until they disappeared into the park maze.

The maze has been closed for two years. Two little boys, younger than Tim at the time, had escaped their nanny and run in. By the time they found them, three weeks later, well*. They weren’t...exactly alive, anymore. Dick remembers Bill talking about the case with Charlie, when they’d both had a few and hadn’t been paying him any attention. Apparently the younger had died first. The elder had. He’d.

There’d been bite marks, clear down to the bone, on the younger. Dick had had nightmares for weeks, and he’d put a blanket ban on going anywhere near the maze. Jason had complained, because Jason always pushes back when Dick says anything, but he’d listened anyway.

But now they’re older, wiser, trained. And Scarecrow and the Grey Lady are in here somewhere, and they need to be stopped.

Dick stands still and breathes, the moist air chilling his lungs. He’s trying not to panic, he really is. But he’s alone, in this green death trap, because they lost sight of them and had to split up. And it’s just because it’s dark, he knows it, but his imagination is throwing up images of what that scene must have looked like, and what that boy had felt, a-and--

_ Settle down! _

He shakes himself and stalks forward, cape flaring out behind him. He loves the cape. Reminds him of the circus, and it’s warm.

All right. All right. He knows how to get out. Just turn around, take two lefts, and then go straight. He’ll be fine, he just has to keep track of the twists and turns.

The rain is very loud. It keeps pounding into the dirt and glancing off the leaves and he’s really not sure if that’s a horse’s hooves that he hears, or just...just water.

And it’s dark, so dark. The city has street lamps, but this place is overgrown and wild and abandoned and he can’t see a thing.

Doesn’t matter.

He comes to a junction, decides to go right. Right’s a good way to go, isn’t it-ow! The hell is this maze grown from, anyway, rusty nails?

He pulls away from the clutching thorns, rubbing at his jabbed elbow, and vows to make more of an effort to stick to the middle.

Where are they…

**Clip-clop, clip-clop.**

That’s definitely a horse. Sounds like it’s on the path to his right, if he can just make it over there…

He thinks it might be the Grey Lady; Scarecrow’s horse is enormous, and this horse sounds lighter on its feet. Quicker, too. Not that it really helps, but he doesn’t think she uses the fear gas that Scarecrow has, and if he has to face one of them alone, he’d rather it be her.

He takes another right and finds himself at a dead end. But he can still hear the horse, on the other side of the leaves. He has to-maybe he can just climb, somehow-

**_“Three blind mice. Three blind mice…”_ **

Dick whirls around. He doesn’t think there’s anyone here, but...the rain, he can’t tell where anything’s coming from, and Scarecrow seldom raises his voice, so he  _ has _ to be nearby. Doesn’t he?

**_“See how they run. See how they run…”_ **

Behind him. The voice is behind him.

**_“They all ran after the farmer’s wife…”_ **

He steps forward, intending to turn and try to just climb the damn hedge, thorns or no, and.

Can’t.

_ Nononononononononononononono _

**_“Who cut off their tails with a carving knife…”_ **

Stuck he’s  _ stuck God no please- _

Wait. Thorns. His cape’s caught in the thorns, that’s all. He’ll just go backwards enough to get some slack and work it free.

**_“Have you ever seen such a sight in your life…”_ **

Come on, come on, let go!

**_“As three. Blind. Mice.”_ **

He’s just about got it when two weak yellow beams illuminate his hands. He looks up, breath catching.

Scarecrow is crouched on top of the hedge, head tilted to the side like a bird’s, the yellow eyes in his mask just reaching Dick.

**_“I found you!”_ ** he says, but makes no move to come down. Dick drops the cape and straightens his shoulders, does his best impression of Batman.

“Give up.”

The head tilts to the other side, movement stiff and borderline inhuman- **no** . That’s how he gets in your head, he’s just a man. He’s just a man.

(He has to be.)

**_“Caught like a little mouse in a trap…”_ **

And then he  _ moves _ , the glint of the scythe Dick’s only warning before it swings down. He dives into the mud, hears it cut through his cape, and scrambles to his feet in time for Scarecrow to be on him.

Scarecrow’s stronger than he looks, and before Dick can brace himself he’s being forced back against the hedge, thorns seeking every out every weak point in his armor.

**_“Don’t be afraid.”_ **

“I’m not scared of you.”

He knees Scarecrow in the stomach and he doubles over, coughing. Dick aims a kick at his collarbone (break it, render him immobile), but the mud is slick. Throws him off balance, just enough to strike Scarecrow’s shoulder instead.

Scarecrow ends up on his back. Before Dick can get out of the way, he’s flung his arm up and a cloud of gas hits him full in the face.

_ SHIT. _

He coughs and sputters and sticks his face up into the rain to try and wash it off. He’s dizzy and he can’t breathe he can’t breathe  _ he can’t breathe- _

_ Gotta stop Scarecrow! _

He rams his hand into the thorns and the pain cuts through the dizziness. Scarecrow, Scarecrow...Scarecrow is gone?

_ DAMN IT! _

He can’t have gotten far-there!

“Hey!”

He gives chase. Scarecrow even stands still, for a second or two, before sprinting off into the maze with a maniacal,  **_“Run and run as fast as you can!”_ **

He’s almost got him. If he can just...a little faster, come on...where did he go?

And. And how did he get here?

_ Right-right-left-no. No, left-right-left-NO. Left-left-left-left-where am I where am I WHERE AM I? _

The hedges loom over him, dark and gnarled. There’s no sign of Scarecrow, and the rain has destroyed any footprints Dick might have made running here. Okay. Okay. He’s okay. He’s just got a little turned around, it happens all the time, that’s why it’s a  _ maze _ .

A flash of lightning turns the whole place white. And at the other end of the path, he sees Tim.

_ Timmy? _

The first thing he feels, guiltily enough, is relief. Tim’s all right, and now he’s not alone. The second thing he feels, upon running towards him, is horror. Tim’s huddled on the ground, slumped in a hedge with the thorns digging into his cape and skin. He doesn’t stir when Dick stumbles to his knees beside him, or when he’s tugged free of the thorns.

He’s cold. He’s so, so cold.

“Tim,” Dick breathes, because Bruce and his Thing about names can go hang, Tim is his baby brother and he’s hurt a-and-- “Timmy, wake up.”

Tim’s heavy on his lap, arms dangling, and shaking him makes his head loll. Dick glances up and around, but they’re still alone.

“C’mon, Tim,” he whispers. “Wake up, you gotta wake up.”

He jostles him again. There’s a. A tearing sound, and Tim’s head--

\--comes off.

Dick screams and scrambles away, eyes locked on the rolling head 

_ Tim Tim TIMMY _

as it bumps gently against the hedge, eyes locked on him.

**_SLICE!_ **

He rolls aside just as a sword hits the ground where his arm was. The Grey Lady dismounts as he jumps to his feet, heart in his throat, and advances on him.

She did this. She killed Tim. She’s not going to walk away, not if it’s the last thing he does, not if Bruce hurls him into Arkham and throws away the key.

He leaps at her. She sidesteps him easily and shakes her head at him, slow and disappointed like Alfred does. To Hell with her,  _ to Hell with her _ , she killed Tim, that psychotic--

The ground heaves under his feet and he stumbles, struggling to keep his balance. The Grey Lady lunges at him and he hops back, the tip of her blade missing his chest by centimeters, and trips over Tim’s...over Tim.

His back squashes into the mud and he scrambles to get his legs and hands under himself.  _ Then _ there’s searing agony in his left shoulder, underscored by the ripping of flesh and muscle.

_ Hurtshurtshurtsithurtsgetitout-! _

_ Breathe, Dick. _

_ GET UP. _

He palms a shuriken in his right hand and forces himself to go still, trying to make his shoulder relax. Tense muscles are painful muscles. The Grey Lady tilts her head, considering, and oh-so-slowly draws her sword back out. Warmth blooms and streams down his arm.

He throws the shuriken. His aim is off and instead of her face (Bruce’s rules can jump in the river) he hits her arm, but it’s enough to force her back.

A long, eerie whistle comes from somewhere in the maze. Before Dick can get to his feet, the Grey Lady is gone, the horse’s hoofbeats quickly melting into the rain.

He rips off a strip of his cape to bind his shoulder and forces himself up. He wants to carry Tim with him, but he’s not sure he can even pick him up. So it’s with a heavy heart that he staggers after the Lady. She’s not getting away with this, not even it it kills him.

The gravel path stretches out before him, endless and white. His shoulder burns and his hair’s sticking to his face and neck and  _ there’s no sign of them where are they-? _

He rounds the corner and stops dead at a  **noise** . It’s a wet, stringy sound, and he can’t place it.

_ Mind your surroundings. _

A flash of lightning turns everything white-except for the dark shape huddled in an alcove carved into the hedge a few feet away.

_ Gotcha. _

He moves closer. The wet sound speeds up and there’s a...a gulp. What  _ is  _ that?

Another flash illuminates Jason. Dick breathes a sigh of relief before crouching down next to him.

“Jay?” he whispers. Jason doesn’t react. He’s the cause of the noise, but he’s also turned away from Dick. “What’re you doin’?”

**Schlmunch, schlumunch, schlumunch.**

“Jason?”

He reaches over to tug on Jason’s shoulder. The younger boy doesn’t want to move and Dick finally grabs him around the ribs and drags him out of the alcove.

Jason’s forearm is between his teeth. The flesh is ragged and Dick sees bone he sees fucking  **bone and nononononononononono--**

**_“There you are!”_ **

**Schlumunch, schlmunch, schlmunch.**

_ Nonononononononono Jay please what are you doing I’m sorry I’M SORRY-- _

**_“Aren’t you going to run?”_ **

He’s pulled away and upwards, Scarecrow’s bony hands locked tight on his shoulder, clawlike fingers digging into the stab.

**_“I’ve never seen such a sight in my life…”_ **

**Schlmunch, schlmunch, schlmunch.**

**_“As three.”_ **

He squirms. Fingers dig deeper into the stab and he thinks they reach bone.

**_“Blind.”_ **

_ Please… _

**_“Mice.”_ **

 

 

** *Bruce’s narration boxes in  _ Haunted Knight _ only say that ‘two children wandered in, the police searched and searched, when they found them, it was too late...the children were…’ but he also says that the place should have been burned to the ground. I’m mostly sure there was no cannibalism involved, but fuck it. There is now. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommended listening: Tommee Profitt's 'Desolation'.

Jason thinks that Dick thinks he doesn’t know about what happened in the maze. And y’know what, if that helps him sleep at night, fine. Jason can be nice like that sometimes.

Now, when it happened, he’d been...it’s not like he didn’t care, but it was like any other kind of tragedy the papers blared out. Awful, yeah, but no reason to get all broken up about it. People die horribly all the time. One’a his neighbors-when Momma was still alive-she spilled oil on herself, and she tripped. Bit of her dress went into the fire, and she.

She went up. Ran out into the hallway screamin’ and leapt over the third-story stair railing. Somebody finally put her out, but between the fall and the burns, she wasn’t...she wasn’t all right, not really. Took three days for her to stop screamin’, though.

Yeah. People die. Sometimes it’s ugly.

(Momma had…)

But these freaks on horseback, they’re not killing people by accident. They’re doin’ it for fun, is Jason’s opinion. That church, last week, the one Bruce had stumbled into...he didn’t tell them much, and the papers had been awful quiet, but he’d overheard Bruce and Selina, late at night. It’d been awful.*

So they have to take them down. Which is why they’re in the maze even though Bruce said no. Bruce is all the way across town, by the time he gets here, they’ll be gone and more people will be dead.

(Or worse.)

Jason’s first idea is to climb the hedge and look for Scarecrow’s glowing horse. And he tries it, only for the thorns to jab clean through his gloves and dig into his palms. Geeze, what are these things?

Doesn’t matter. Dick went that way, Tim went that way, so he’ll go this way and try not to get lost. Though, really, if he gets lost, he’s climbing the damn hedges, thorns or not.

He’s not scared. But...maybe it...would’ve been better to stick together. Y’know. For safety. Not that it matters now.

_ Where are you? _

He can’t hear anything but the rain pounding into the mud and his boots squelching in said mud. It’s sticky, clingy, and it’s dumb, but he wonders if it’s...alive. Somehow.

Somewhere ahead of him, there’s a horse’s snort. He grins, just for a second, and makes more of a conscious effort to move quietly, and to keep to the middle of the path. Why give ‘em an opportunity to attack from the sides?

_ See, Bruce, I’m not  _ _ reckless _ _. _

There’s no more noise and Jason stills, trying to see through the rain. Did he imagine the horse? He didn’t think…

_ Shhh… _

What was that?

He twists around. There’s nothing behind him, but...but he doesn’t remember, exactly, which path he took to get here.

It doesn’t matter, he figures. He’ll be fine.

When nothing happens, he keeps going, half-wishing he’d stuck with one of the others. But only half. They gotta catch these lunatics, and the fastest way to do that is to split up.

A flash of lightning stops him in his tracks; up ahead, no more than ten feet away, is a horse and rider. And they’re facing him.

It’s not Scarecrow, it’s the other one. And he can handle her, now that he knows what to expect.

“You may as well just give up,” he calls over the rain. The horse’s ears move but the rider does not. She just stares at him--

\--and then charges him.

It’s only thanks to several near-accidents in the city streets that he gets out of the way in time, and even then it’s only just. He rolls back to his feet as the Grey Lady turns her horse back around, but she doesn’t charge him again. Just looks.

“You missed.”

**_“But I didn’t.”_ **

WHAT--

_ HISSSS! _

Jason hits the ground, pulling his cape over his mouth and nose. His eyes still sting, but last time the effects started immediately and this time he’s not seeing things. Well, apart from Scarecrow’s yellow eyes and shiny scythe and giant, glowing horse.

Horse?

It’s stupid, and everyone he knows will be mad about it later, but he jumps up and forward, arms flung wide, and the horse rears back.

**_“You little brat-!”_ **

He can’t handle them both. He runs for it, sprinting past Scarecrow and taking a hard turn left-right-does-it-matter, deeper into the maze. Distance, he needs distance, or maybe to get around behind them, if he can just get them on the ground…

He can’t see very well, and he  _ knows _ it’s just the rain, but everything’s blurry and he can’t...s’that a bush, or a person?

**_“Come out, come out, wherever you are!”_ **

_ Not on your life, freak. _

He stumbles to a halt at a crossroads, knowing he should make a decision but not knowing where they  _ are _ and--

_ “Jayyyysoooon!” _

Mama?

No, he reminds himself, Mama’s dead. He was there, he saw it happen. His mind’s playing tricks, that’s all. Now. Left or right?

_ “Jayjay, where are you?” _

Sometimes...not a lot, but sometimes...sometimes people wake up. After. An’ she didn’t but maybe he was wrong--

He wasn’t wrong. He knows he wasn’t wrong. Mama is dead and he misses her but that’s not gonna make her come back.

But he goes left, because it sounded...it sounded like her voice came from the left, a-and maybe she’s not here but still tryin’ ta help him or somethin’.

(It’s a nice lie to cling to, isn’t it?)

_ “Jay? Baby?” _

From somewhere behind him comes the sound of heavy horse’s hooves splattering through the mud and he takes a sudden right, wedges himself into a half-overgrown alcove and holds his breath. The hoofbeats stop not five feet away and rain or no rain, he can hear the animal breathing, deep and even. He thinks it’s Scarecrow, but he doesn’t want to poke his head out and see. When whoever it is moves on, he’ll look, see what he can do.

Two agonizing minutes later, there’s the gentle clinking of the reins and a snort as the horse is turned around, followed by a swift  _ clip-clip _ as it’s urged into a trot. Jason peeks--

\--but there’s no horse. He can hear it, in the dark, but he can’t see it. It was...he’d heard it, he knows he did…

_ “Jason Peter, when I call you, you answer me!” _

Frail arms wrap around him and he jumps, pulls free, and turns around.

“...Mama?” He can just make her out, but. But that’s  _ Mama _ , alive and as whole as she ever was a-and-- “Mama!”

Some nagging little voice is saying to be careful. He ignores it in favor of springing into her arms like he hadn’t gotten the chance to do long before she...she...went away? She went away. She was sick, and she went away. That’s right.

_ “Hey-hey, be gentle with me.” _ She hugs him back, weak and trembling, and one of her thin hands buries itself in his hair.  _ “Look at you, all grown up!” _

“I’ve got…” He guesses ‘brothers’ is the best word, even if it feels weird to announce that to his mother. “When you left, I…”

She pulls back and he’s confused, because didn’t she miss him, too? But she’s just reaching up to cup his face, fingertips brushing the edges of the mask.

_ “Look at you…” _

Why’s she so cold? It’s cold outside, yeah, but...but she always used to be so warm.

“I thought you weren’t comin’ back.”

He can’t see her face, not really, but he knows she’s giving him that soft smile she always used to, when she was really hurting and he’d tell her stories.

_ “Let’s go home, Jason.” _

Home? They don’t...their old flat’s not...she wouldn’t know, a-and besides, he’s...Bruce wouldn’t throw her out, would he? His house’d fit half their old neighborhood, easy.

Mama’s hand drops and grabs his wrist like he’s three again, but she’s squeezing way too tight. He tries to pull away and she squeezes harder, brittle nails digging in through his sleeves and through his skin.

“You’re hurting me--”

And then she shoves him into the hedge, thorns lashing out and holding him tight.

_ “It’s time to go, Jason.” _

“Mama--”

She puts her hands on his shoulders and pushes him back until the thorns are nipping at his face.

_ “You were supposed to die, not me,” _ she hisses, eyes shining in the darkness like a cat’s.  _ “This is all your fault!” _

“I didn’t mean to get sick--”

_ “An eye for an eye, a life for a life.” _

“Mama, please--”

Lightning flashes and Mama  **grows** , gains a good foot and a bit, and the thumb brushing his throat turns sharper.

Scarecrow chuckles and grasps Jason’s hair, pulls his head back.

**_“I found you!”_ **

 

 

 

*Incident detailed in ‘Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned’.


End file.
